Change Client’s Negative Perceptions of Nursing Homes

Do you find it difficult to attract clients to your nursing home?  here are 6 great ways to change negative perceptions of nursing home clients.

When you talk about retirement homes, people’s perceptions automatically end with end of life and abuse. It’s a fact that nursing homes usually make headlines for the wrong reasons (but that doesn’t mean the good news doesn’t come from nursing homes). Analysis of media images of nursing homes shows that the number of negative stories is five times the number of positive stories, according to a study published in the December issue of Medical Care. and projected them in a very unfavorable light. For this reason, people tend to be reluctant to take their people and loved ones to nursing homes, reducing the viability of the industry.

In fact, nursing homes, including skilled nursing homes or rehabilitation centers, face underutilization. Employment figures are steadily declining, except for a few quarterly peaks. The national utilization rate was around 86% in mid-2012; this year it is 81.8%.

This has projected a disturbing trend for the industry as well as for entrepreneurs who run nursing homes. But this trend must not continue. This can indeed be changed, and we’ll see how public perceptions of nursing homes can be changed so that the industry can resist again.

Regular customer complaints about nursing homes

It’s a fact that you need to know where something went wrong before trying to find a solution. Therefore, before we can try to find a solution to the poor perception of nursing homes, let’s try to find out why they have such ugly public perceptions. Thus, we want to respond to the usual complaints from residents about retirement homes.

  1. Malnutrition

Malnutrition and lack of nutrition are common problems in nursing homes. Seniors need all of their vitamins and minerals every day to support their bodies. If the diet supplied to nursing homes by residents does not contain the appropriate nutrients, malnutrition will become a problem in the population. Unfortunately, malnutrition is common in nursing homes today.

Dehydration is another major problem in nursing homes. Along with malnutrition, dehydration is one of the most common health problems among residents of nursing homes. Research shows that approximately 1,600,000 elderly people live in nursing homes in the United States and that approximately one-third of them face some form of malnutrition.

Believe it or not, in some nursing homes, malnutrition can affect up to 85% of residents. In addition, some elderly people are underweight; this number represents up to 50% of the inhabitants of most nursing homes.

Some signs of malnutrition in the elderly may include, but are not limited to:

  • Oral Symptoms
      : Family members may find excessive sores and redness in the patient’s mouth. Additionally, thrush and possibly a yeast infection can cause white patches on the cheeks and tongue in an emaciated patient.
  • Muscle loss  : When the body lacks nutrients stored in the muscles, the muscles can become noticeably sluggish. Long-term fatigue is another sign of muscle weakness due to malnutrition.
  • Eye symptoms
      : If the patient has eye redness or swollen corneas, malnutrition may be the cause. This can affect the elder’s vision.

Improper nutrition is usually caused by neglect, neglect, and lack of concern.

  1. Nursing homes are expensive

One of the biggest drawbacks of a nursing home is the high cost of living. It can cost families thousands of dollars a year to put an older family member in a nursing home, and it’s often not an expense that the family is willing to pay.

In California, the average rate for a single room is $ 307 per day, or over $ 112,000 per year in total. If your loved one doesn’t have enough retirement savings to cover the costs, a nursing home just might not be an option your family can afford.

If parents set aside some of their retirement savings to cover the cost of living in a nursing home, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but if that money isn’t available, retirement homes may not be a viable option for many families.

  1. Nursing homes can be depressing

Grounding a loved one because of the privacy and comfort of the one home they have known for years can lead to depression. Aside from the huge change, many seniors are afraid to move into a nursing home because they see it as the last step before the end of their life.

This is usually the case, as they usually do not return home. Houses. Living in a nursing home can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation, which are a major cause of poor health in older people. And in older people with dementia, removing them from their familiar surroundings leads to a faster decline in cognitive abilities.

  1. Loss of freedom and independence

After a successful and independent life, it is often difficult to convince older people to move into a nursing home, where they can lose much of the sense of freedom to which they have become so accustomed throughout their lives. While a regulated schedule can be beneficial to their overall health, many residents miss the opportunity to do what they want when they want.

Many nursing homes offer scheduled activities where participation is encouraged, but do not necessarily give residents the right to choose what they want to do. While the hours of operation of a nursing home can be beneficial to the overall health of your loved one, a loss of freedom and independence can cause them to lose their self-esteem as they will no longer be able to afford it. control of their own life.

  1. Lack of closeness to family

Depending on where you live, there may not be a good retirement home nearby. A long weekend can hurt family members. Even though you can visit them regularly, your loved one may still experience a lack of family presence, an increased sense of loneliness and depression. Most nursing home staff do their best to create a sense of community among residents, but for the elderly, they are still not family.

  1. Horrible stories of retirement homes

Maybe the reason why many people have a negative opinion of nursing homes is that there are so many horror stories about nursing homes. These are stories of neglect, abuse or mistreatment in nursing homes of the people we love so much.

These stories are the main reasons why most people give up on sending loved ones to nursing homes. It is a fact that most of these stories are few in number, but they have shaped public perception so much that people have come to associate them with retirement homes.

6 factors influencing the existence of nursing homes

  1. They are generally understaffed

Nursing homes are built in such a way that nurses are the primary caregivers, as most nursing home residents have special medical needs. But the main problem with nursing homes is that they don’t have enough staff for everyone.

A growing body of evidence suggests that workload negatively impacts the quality of care and patient safety in nursing homes. Over the past decades, concerns about congestion in nursing homes have grown. Nursing homes are under increasing pressure due to increasing numbers of elderly people, financial pressures, understaffing, increased complexity of care and higher expectations for quality of care.

Since caregivers interact intensely with the patient, they are able to assess the patient’s condition and listen to any concerns the patient may express. However, when faced with a high workload, caregivers may not have time to assess the psychosocial and physical condition of patients due to the limited possibilities for interaction with patients and other caregivers.

This can interfere with proactive care, which detects the first signs of clinical deterioration or complications, and arranges for follow-up interventions, resulting in the cancellation of at least one critical task. As a result, the quality of care and patient safety will be reduced.

  1. Competition

One problem that can create or destroy a business is competition, and nursing homes currently face strong competition from competing industries and struggle to keep up with it. Currently – and perhaps surprisingly – nursing homes, including nursing homes or rehabilitation centers, are underutilized.

Occupancy is steadily declining, except for a few quarterly surges. The national utilization rate was around 86% in mid-2012; this year it is 81.8%.

But the main reason that the beds are empty in nursing homes is that there are more alternatives these days. Livelihood support and home health care are overall the main areas of growth. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Retirement homes, symbolically and often in reality, represent a dark last stop in life.

People try to delay arriving at the retirement home as long as possible. And older people, even those in the middle class, almost always choose a less institutional setting than a nursing home, at least until they run out of money or care elsewhere becomes impossible. The retirement home then becomes the supplier of last resort.

  1. Technology

Another factor that is constantly tearing the fabric of nursing homes apart is technology. more years. Children would now be more comfortable if their parents lived alone later, if sensors in the home could tell they were safe.

  1. Medicaid

Perhaps the biggest threat to nursing homes is their addiction to government Medicaid programs, which could lose federal funds as Washington tries to reform its healthcare system. When people think of Medicaid, their first reaction is often to think of unemployed beneficiaries. But about 20% of Medicaid spending comes from long-term care, most of which is for people who have outlived their assets.

Medicaid is the largest contributor to long-term care, including $ 55 billion that went to nursing homes in 2015, covering six in ten nursing home patients. A variety of proposals that limit Medicaid funding would jeopardize that funding, and any Medicaid dependent entity would likely need staff reductions, resulting in lower quality of service, making it even more difficult for these funds to compete with alternatives. available to individuals. who have private funds.

  1. Difficulty recruiting nurses

Another challenge that nursing homes face is the difficulty of recruiting nurses. The State of Nursing report found that 20% of nursing homes do not have enough service staff to ensure that residents receive safe and quality care, and that their turnover and vacancies are among the highest in social services.

This concerns nurses who already work in social security. The reason is that nurses would rather go where there are fewer jobs and more job applications than stay in nursing homes.

  1. Increased complexity of care

Social care has changed dramatically over the past two decades: Nursing homes now have residents who were previously in nursing homes, and nursing homes care for people who would need hospital care.

As demographics have changed, people are living longer with more difficult conditions such as dementia. Nursing homes are expected to support people with acute needs and provide a community dimension of care.

Less than 80% of retirement homes surveyed meet CQC safety standards, compared to 85% in hospital care. Houses. The increased complexity of care is one of the explanations for the problems facing retirement homes.

How to Change Negative Perceptions of Nursing Home Clients

  1. Work on media perception

The point is that the media play an important role in shaping public perception. People generally believe what they hear on the news and for a long time the news has been flooded with horror stories of nursing homes, which has made people afraid to send their loved ones there.

If you wish to continue as a retirement home, it is your responsibility to change this public perception. Start at home and plan activities that will shed great light on retirement homes.

Create social events, organize day trips, and occasionally invite media representatives to your home to interact with residents. By doing all of this, one can paint a positive picture of nursing homes that contradict previous perceptions. This, in turn, would inspire people to bring their loved ones.

  1. Provide quality care

The quality of care and the cultural change make a big difference in the face of a nursing home, as evidenced by a national survey of nursing home residents and their families in Missouri. Due to the poor quality of care provided by some nursing homes, they are commonly referred to as terrible places.

This is something that needs to be changed if you are to change the way people think about retirement homes. You must be able to hire top notch staff to take care of your tenants, and your staff to tenant ratio must be reasonable and meet government standards.

Your staff should be patient with residents who require special care, such as those who need special care and attention while eating.

  1. Improve diet

Food and nutrition are at the top of the list of complaints from residents and their families about home care. It is a fact that most nursing homes save on food in order to increase their bottom line. If you want to change the public’s perception of your nursing home, your meal rate has to change.

This is a tremendous opportunity to improve the quality, variety and presentation of food in nursing homes and to have a positive impact on resident satisfaction with food. A good start is to increase your food rotation schedule to at least four weeks of rotation.

Residents also enjoy hot and cold dishes. The catering service, where residents are offered options seated at their tables, is as popular as the flowers that adorn said tables.

Some villagers who have trouble swallowing may need textured food and others may follow a salt-free diet, but you don’t have to expose everyone to this diet. Try to prepare individual meals so you can reach those without dietary restrictions. Again, presentation matters a lot. You have to find a way to improve the situation in this area in order to attract more residents to your home.

  1. Nighttime noise suppression

A good number of residents complained of trouble sleeping at night, the main culprits being; Televisions buzz during sad hours, worried neighbors, loud conversations between workers, etc. If the residents of your retirement home are not getting good quality sleep at night, they will become anxious during the day.

You should take steps to minimize interference at night. There are several things you can do to mitigate this trend, including: Imposing a TV curfew and forcing night viewers to use headphones after curfew.

Encourage night staff to report residents’ insomnia so that sleep and wake disturbances can be reversed and medications adjusted as needed. As part of on-the-job training, explain how night shifts can communicate with each other so as not to disturb sleeping tenants.

Good sleep hygiene on an individual basis can reduce irritability, improve memory, and promote recovery. Good unit-wide sleep hygiene is good customer service that can improve residents’ physical and mental health and reduce conflict between residents (it is difficult to be friendly with someone who supported you all night).

  1. Encourage an active social life

Too often, many older people feel lonely in nursing homes with no one to talk to. This is indeed the perception of the majority of residents, and it really is not, it will be your responsibility to prove this to residents by helping them connect with their peers. The false impression that they are alone in a retirement home is based on several factors, such as:

  • The new residents carry the prejudices of most people outside the nursing home, believing that everyone inside is embarrassed or too sick to bear. during the conversation.
  • The tendency for people to think of themselves as unique when there are actually many particularly interesting people in nursing homes.
  • Nursing homes are more vigilant and tend to leave their units to attend events. When newcomers arrive, they try to sit in the lobby or living room, and finding residents more confused, they come to the conclusion that everyone is confused. They then retire to their rooms.
  • Since most residents are physically disabled, people often mistakenly believe that they also have cognitive abilities.

There are a number of methods you can use to connect residents to each other, including:

  • Meet new residents with other people with similar interests;
  • Encourage them to attend events before deciding to spend their days alone. in their rooms;
  • Recognize strengths and share them with other members of the community. (For example, a new resident who agreed to be interviewed for a special article in a nursing home newsletter.); and
  • Help residents set up an admissions committee.

In the nursing home, there are always social events on the schedule to encourage participation and socialization of all residents. This gives seniors the opportunity to meet other residents of the same age, lead more active lives and become part of the community. And the best part is that all activities are carried out under the supervision of qualified health professionals in the nursing home.

  1. Use technology effectively

The world changes. Our population is aging and technology is advancing. Yet nursing homes seem to be lagging behind in the combination of personal care and technology. There may be reasons for this; the need to keep already high prices as low as possible; maintain a warm atmosphere for residents; and the reluctance of nurses to rely on innovation.

But in order for your nursing home to be more efficient and residents to receive the best possible care, you may have to rely on some useful technology in one way or another. For example, you can install technology to help you track your breathing, heart rate, and movement.

Because of the frequent ringing of the monitor, nurses can develop anxious fatigue over time. You can use technology to relieve your nurses of this stress. With decent technology, it can help improve the health of your nursing home.

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